Remarks at a White House Luncheon Honoring the State Teachers of the Year

July 13, 1983
Ladies and gentlemen, you go right ahead, and everyone can serve dessert and so forth. I just
want to make a few remarks here, but I precede with a special bulletin.

I understand there's been some conversation about whether you would have an opportunity to see
more of the White House than just this room. And so I've been told that that Diplomatic
Reception Room downstairs that you came in, that oval room downstairs, when we depart here, if
you will gather there, the guides will be there and conduct you on a tour of the White House, for
those of you who -- [applause] -- --

And now, just, welcome to the White House. And I think that Ted Bell [Secretary of Education]
will agree when I say there isn't a group who belongs here more than you, America's finest
educators. I'm very proud and happy to have you here.

Seeing you here today I'm filled with confidence about the preparation of our children and the
future of our nation. If I may improvise on a line from one of my predecessors, he said, in this
room, ``There has not been so much brain power, commitment, and dedication concentrated in
this one room since Thomas Jefferson dined here alone.'' [Laughter] But, you know, I've given
toasts to Kings and Queens in this room, as well as to Prime Ministers and Presidents, but you're
the only group for whom I've ever felt obliged to diagram my sentences. [Laughter]

I'd like to congratulate all of you for being recognized as Teachers of the Year in your own
States, and I know you'll join me in a special salute to the 1983 National Teacher of the Year, Dr.
LeRoy E. Hay. [Applause] I was a little disturbed; I had two names for him. One was Lee Hay,
but then he told me that this one was the correct one, that his mother really would like it if I used
the whole name. [Laughter]

Behind each of your awards, of course, are countless individual children whose lives you've
touched, whose minds you've broadened, and whose character you've helped shape. The
knowledge, the judgment, and the love that you've shared will follow them through their lives, and
that will enrich all of us. On behalf of a grateful nation, I thank you.

I also want to thank the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Companies, and Good Housekeeping magazine. Together they've sponsored the National Teacher
of the Year competition for more than three decades, promoting and rewarding excellence in our
classrooms. And that's just the kind of cooperation and initiative that we need more of if we're to
get our education system and our country back on track.

Someone once said that a school is a building that has four walls and tomorrow inside. Our
history has been a testament of the fact that our education system, the key that unlocked the
golden door of opportunity for our people, has been in those buildings. When our forebears were
throwing up makeshift towns across our wilderness continent, among the first structures that they
built were the churches, and then came the schoolhouses.

And as a matter of fact, the tradition of the little church-related college -- where I went to college
in Illinois, Eureka College, the tradition there has -- it was reversed when Ben Major, in command
of the wagon train, and they stopped in a walnut grove of trees and decided that this was where
they would settle, he sank an ax in a tree and said, ``Here we will build our school.'' And they built
their school before they built anything, or their own homes.

The recent report of our Commission on Excellence in Education exposed what it labeled as a
``rising tide of mediocrity'' in education. According to that report, about 13 percent of our
17-year-olds are functional illiterates. More than two-thirds of our high-schoolers can't write a
decent essay. The study indicates the quality of learning in our classrooms has been declining for
the last quarter of a century -- a fact that I'm sure won't surprise many of you.

There's nothing the matter with our children, and I'd like to make it plain once and for all: There's
nothing the matter with America's teachers. You are people who savor the sound of a well-turned
phrase and delight in introducing youth to Shakespeare, knowing that it was youth that
Shakespeare loved. You best understand how a mastery of math can help master life, how science
can open endless worlds of the imagination, and how history teaches judgment and
perspective.

Many of you have been waving a red warning flag for years now, calling for more stress on basics
and pointing out how society has discouraged some of our most capable people from choosing
teaching careers. It's time America listened to you again, respected you again, and rewarded your
effort and excellence with salaries that will encourage our best young people to follow in your
footsteps.

That's why Secretary Bell and I have been pushing hard for a national agenda for excellence in
education. And one of the first items on it is the concept of merit pay for teachers. If we want to
achieve excellence, we must reward it. It's a simple American philosophy that dominates many
other professions, so why not this one? There are plenty of outstanding teachers outside of this
room. They're teaching in classrooms all across America. What we must do is find them, promote
them, and hold them up as role models not just for other teachers but for our children.

There are many important jobs in American life, but I can't think of any that are more important
than teaching. As I told a group of journalists recently, I remember the high school teacher who
changed my life: B. J. Fraser -- Dixon, Illinois. He taught English and drama. But most important,
he channeled my imagination in ways that set it free. I owe him a great deal.

William Ellery Channing, an early American clergyman, once said that ``it is a greater work to
educate a child than to rule a state.'' What he said was right then, as America set her first
minorities -- or priorities, I should say. And it is still true today as we return to them.

America's parents, administrators, and officeholders must join with you in a new campaign for
educational excellence. With your continued help and dedication and our renewed commitment,
we can and will restore America's ability to educate all our children to the highest standards we
know.

So, thank you very much -- not only for coming here today but for dedicating your lives to our
children and to our future. And just let me know how I can be of help to you. Good luck, and
God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:40 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the White House.